NATION

Treaties: From Yukon to Yucatan

Congress authorizes Bush to negotiate a U.S.-Mexico free-trade pact that would create a $6 trillion market, but critics fear lost jobs and environmental woes

WORLD

India: Death's Return Visit

A horrific assassination claims India's most famous son, leaving the nation to ponder a future of growing violence and division

SCIENCE

Can Lawns Be Justified? (Environment)

Awash in fertilizers and pesticides, they may be a hazard to homeowners -- and children, pets and neighbors

Look Who's Going Green (Environment)

U.S. utilities, with the help of enlightened regulators, are finding ways to do good by selling less

HEALTH & MEDICINE

Aids Moves in Many Ways (Health)

Headlines about tainted transplants and infected dentists stir public anxiety, but there is no cause for panic

SOCIETY

Cheating on The Tests (Ethics)

The controversial practice known as race norming was probably doing minorities more long-term harm than good

When Is It RAPE? (Behavior / Cover Stories)

He was a classmate, a co-worker or a date. He says she wanted it. She calls it a crime. A battle of the sexes rages over drawing the line.

The Clamor on Campus (Behavior)

Date rape is one crime that colleges are finding too hot to handle but impossible to ignore

ALSO IN THIS ISSUE

When Kids Do the Testing (Ideas)

For the best bet in peanut butter or the word on the wasteful packaging of fast food, check out Zillions

BUSINESS

LAW

The Ultimate Horror Show

A court hearing pits First Amendment rights against the fear of an electronic return to the rite of public execution

ARTS & ENTERTAINMENT

Fresh Voices Above the Noisy Din (Books)

New works by four Chinese-American writers splendidly illustrate the frustrations, humor and eternal wonder of the immigrant's life

Hollywood Goes to Heaven (Show Business)

Filmmakers are haunting theaters with a horde of afterlife movies. Is it a search for the Almighty, or just the almighty buck?

Play It Again, Sampler (Music)

A revolutionary device turns pop on its ear by enabling musicians to beg, borrow and steal sounds from all over

PEOPLE

An Ethical Guru: BARBARA JORDAN (Interview)

Monitors Morality Lobbyists once handed out $10,000 checks on the floor of the state senate. Now former Congresswoman BARBARA JORDAN is trying to clean up Texas government.

TO OUR READERS

ESSAY